Monday, 30 July 2007

Young animals are always fun, not least because they have less fear than their adult counterparts and the fact that they are cute too makes them photogenic. This weekend I was entertained by a group of young wagtails. I swear there was a pair of grey wagtails who enticed me to stop, change lenses and set myself up, just to fly off as I was ready to start shooting. Nevertheless I did manage the following shot of a rather more helpful juvenile pied wagtail who stayed around to check me out...

Wednesday, 25 July 2007

Leaving things to the last minute has become something of a habit. The benefits in terms of increased efficiency, and more free time have largely outweighed the occasional increase in stress levels. Except of course when there are real costs to be incurred.

Airlines, bless them, sell their cheapest seats first. I've never been totally sure why this is, since presumably there is no reason why any seat in the same class should be cheaper than any other. Okay, so there is an incentive to book early and I suppose a slight tendency to spread the load as people choose to fly a day or so later to get cheaper seats. On average, however, I would expect it makes no real difference to the loading or take-up, as people fly when they need to and book when they are aware of that need.

In my case, putting off booking for several months has cost me £60 - a not insignificant sum - and my booking is hardly last minute. Choosing to return on one of the busiest flying days of the year (Christmas Eve) is the main factor here. The question now becomes was that £60 worth the extra peace of mind I have gained by tying a few things down before booking, or should I have booked earlier (and used the money on camera gear)? I guess I'll never know...

The good news is my Falklands holiday is now all booked, apart from two nights accomadation in Chile. It looks like I'm definately on my way!

Saturday, 7 July 2007

Well, as anyone who has been following the tennis will know - it has been a wet summer this year. Today, however, we finally had a day when good weather coincided with a completely free saturday, so I set off in search of buzzards. It was a fabulous day, and I did manage to find three buzzards - but they were photographically uncooperative, so I had to content myself with lesser targets.

A chance encounter with a wren (another uncooperateive species) yielded a halfway decent shot. And the yellowhammer was a completely unexpected bonus. Not the best day's work - but after a spell with so few images, extremely satisfying...